Taiwan thanked the u.s for support on
tuesday after the u.s state department
agreed to sell it 2.2 billion dollars, 1.96 billion euros in arms. The purchase is set to include 108 M182T Abrams tanks. Some 250 stinger air
defense missiles, mounted machine guns
and other weapons.
Taiwan stands in the front line of
china's ambitious expansion and faced
enormous threats and pressure from
beijing, the authorities on the
self-ruled island said. This arms sale of M1A2 tanks and various
missiles will help greatly to increase
our defensive capabilities, the statement
added.
U.S Lawmakers have 30 days to raise
objections to the sale but are not
expected to oppose it. On tuesday china slammed the move as a
crude interference in china's internal
affairs. They called on washington to immediately
cancel the planned arms sale and stop
military relations with taipei to avoid
damaging sino-us relations and harming
peace and stability in the taiwan strait. Beijing which sees the island as a
renegade province, also repeatedly urged
washington to abide by its own, one china
principle which states that taiwan is a
part of china.
"Taiwan is an inseparable part of china's
territory and nobody should
underestimate the chinese governments
and people's firm determination to
defend the country's sovereignty and
territorial integrity and oppose foreign
interference," said chinese foreign
ministry spokesman Zhang Shuang.
The capitalist taiwan has been
self-ruled since the end of the chinese
civil war in 1949. Which saw the
communist party take power in mainland
china. I the following decades, the u.s openly
supported the nationalist taiwan
government, threatening military
retaliation against beijing if its
forces invaded the island.
In 1979 the u.s changed its course and
proclaimed taiwan to be part of china. Washington is no longer required to
respond in case of a chinese attack, but
a new treaty still obliges it to help
the island government maintain
sufficient self-defense capabilities. With fewer than 24 million residents
taiwan would find its forces massively
outgunned in any armed conflict with
china. The decision to sell weapons to the
taiwanese government comes as the us is
clashing with beijing over global trade.
Taiwan announced a modest pace in
defense spending for next year on
thursday, but will spend 1.4 billion
dollars on new fighter jets. As the
island bolsters its forces in the face
of increased pressure from beijing. China has stepped up its military
activity near taiwan, including holding
assault drills last week near the island. Which it regards as chinese territory to
be brought under beijing's control by
force if necessary.
President Tsai Ing-wen cabinet is
proposing military spending of about
16.9 billion dollars for the year
starting in january, up from this year's
budget of 16.2 billion, the government
said in a statement.
That number includes 1.4 billion dollars
for new fighter jets. the government did not give details but
is likely referring to F-16s. The united states in 2019 approved an 8
billion sale of F-16 fighter jets to
taiwan. A deal that would bring the
island's total to more than 200, the
largest F-16 fleet in asia.
The rate of increase would be smaller
than the 10 percent rise budgeted for this year, according to reuters calculations based
on government data. China in march said its 2021 defense
spending would rise 6.8 from 2020, as the
world's second largest economy emerges
from the repercussions of the
coronavirus pandemic.
Taiwan's proposed defense budget is the
third largest government expenditure for
next year, after social welfare and
combined spending on education science
and culture. The budget must be approved by
parliament where psy's democratic
progressive party has a large majority, making its approval easier. Tsai has made modernizing taiwan's armed
forces well-armed but dwarfed by china's
and increasing defense spending a
priority. Part of that is a making taiwan of
porcupine, equipped with advanced, highly
mobile weapons to make a chinese
invasion as difficult as possible.
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